Sandbagging the Pursuit of Happiness

            You can’t pursue happiness if you are dead.

            That dark notion burst into my head as I read a much-cited study. The paper, done by researchers for the National Center for Health Statistics, drew a lot of media attention for its shock figures.

• In 2021 overall life expectancy in the U.S. fell enough that we lost a quarter of a century of progress.
• After years of closing the life expectancy gap, the difference between women and men rose again from 4.8 to 5.9 years. Yes, another quarter century of lost progress.
• The real shocker? The life expectancy of non-Hispanic Native Americans dropped to the level of the entire U.S. population in 1944.

Comparing Poorly to the Industrialized World

As I said, those shock numbers got a lot of attention. But some other figures, in a related study, may be far more important. That study, also preliminary, compares changes in life expectancy in the U.S. to changes in 21 peer countries between 2019 and 2021.

Here’s a list of the countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, England/Wales, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Norway, Portugal, Scotland, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

What does it show?

A Deepening Life Expectancy Gap

A dramatic graphic shows that life expectancy in the U.S. was lower than all 21 peer nations in 2019. It was even lower than all 21 nations in 2021. As the study noted, “The gap between U.S. life expectancy and the peer average rose to more than five years in 2021, further deepening a disadvantage in health and survival that has been deepening for decades.”

As you can see from the table below, we lost more than two years of life expectancy as a whole, while the peer group nations lost only months in life expectancy. A closer examination tells us more.

• Scotland, the lowest expectancy country in the peer group, had a better life expectancy than the U.S. in both 2019 and 2021.
• Ten of the 21 nations actually gained a slight amount of life expectancy while we lost 2.1 years.
• Only one U.S. sub-group, non-Hispanic Asians, has a higher life expectancy than any nation in the 21-nation peer group.
• Some observers have tried to explain that U.S. life expectancy is low due to the dramatically lower expectancy of our black population, particularly black men. In fact, while black life expectancy does lower total U.S. life expectancy, the figure for non-Hispanic white people only is lower than the 21-nation peer group average. Even more striking, the life expectancy for U.S. non-Hispanic white people is lower than life expectancy in Scotland, the worst of the peer group.

They Must Be Doing Something Better

It’s safe to say that these countries are doing something better than we are. It’s not a statistical fluke.

So why should a personal finance writer, who busies himself writing about investing, saving and preparing for retirement, write about this?

Simple.

Happiness While Dead

Money doesn’t mean anything if you are dead.

America has a life gap. It’s big. You can’t pursue liberty or happiness while dead. These life numbers make money seem kind of, well, irrelevant. It may also be a good reason for many of us to focus less on our money and more on our health.

Can Fingers Be Pointed?

Can we blame this on American health care? As an Ancient One who has been on Medicare for well over a decade, I can’t point a finger. Neither can my wife. We’ve had great care. All I can say is that health care, in quality and quantity, is like food, housing and income. For some, it’s great. But it isn’t evenly distributed.

Can Big Brother in Washington fix it for us? Maybe some of it. While Uncle Sam can devote more resources to public health, poverty and job creation, a lot of the life gap is on us as individuals and families.

For example?

Up in Smoke

Consider smoking. It’s a choice. But it’s still a major national habit in spite of a generation of deterrent advertising. As I pointed out in another column, about as many people have died from the effects of smoking since Covid-19 hit as have died from Covid.

The CDC estimates that smoking shortens life expectancy by a whopping 10 years. In spite of this, it is still common to see smokers puffing away in their cars. Where I live in Texas Hill Country, I often see a bleached circle on the back pockets of denims. It’s the tell-tale sign of a chewing tobacco tin.

Cancer, country-style.

Casting a wider net, it’s a good bet that the typical American diet is worse than what people eat in Scotland. The nation where actuarial science was invented is also a leading nation in heart disease.

We can do a lot, maybe the most, by following Voltaire’s advice in his novella “Candide.”

 “Tend your own garden.”

Related columns:

Scott Burns, “Index funds beat managed funds again and again,” 06/19/2022 https://scottburns.com/index-funds-beat-managed-funds-again-and-again/

Scott Burns, “Seeing Risk,” 06/20/2020  https://scottburns.com/seeing-risk/

Sources and References:

Mike Stobbe, “US Life Expectancy lowest in decades after plunging nearly a year in 2021,” 8/31/2022 https://abc7chicago.com/us-life-expectancy-what-is-average-2021/12183364/

Ryan K. Masters, Laudan Y. Aron, Steven H. Woolf, “Changes in life expectancy between 2019 and 2021 in the United States and 21 Peer Countries,” https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.05.22273393v4

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.05.22273393v4.full-text

Elizabeth Arias, Betzaida Tejada-Vera, Kenneth D. Kochanek and Farida B. Ahmad, “Provisional Life Expectancy Estimates for 2021,” Vital Statistics Rapid Release, August 2022. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/vsrr/vsrr023.pdf

Global ranking of life expectancy by country https://www.worldometers.info/demographics/life-expectancy/

CDC website general information: “Tobacco-Related Mortality” https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/health_effects/tobacco_related_mortality/index.htm

This information is distributed for education purposes, and it is not to be construed as an offer, solicitation, recommendation, or endorsement of any particular security, product, or service.

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(c) Scott Burns, 2022